As I mentioned in my last post, this month has been absolutely JAM PACKED with St. Patrick's Day festivities. Scranton has a significant population of Irish Catholics and - similarly to La Festa Italiana for the Italians - has built up it's own day to celebrate this subset of people. And, lucky me, I find myself a member of said group - perhaps in less fortunate ways whenever applying a third coat of sunscreen at the beach to protect my snow white skin. But in any event, Scranton's Parade Day - as it's colloquially known - is a massive parade here in town that beckons people from all over the NEPA area and beyond to converge on the little town of Scranton for an afternoon of cultural appreciation, merriment, and the occasional celebratory drink! Of course, as members of the Scranton community, my housemates and I made it a point to join into the festivities of the day, and we even had a guest from Villanova come to participate as well! We began our morning with green eggs (something of a tradition now among my college friends), and I even made my grandmother's famous Irish Soda Bread to really put us in the mood. **Disclaimer: baking is not my forte, but I'm fairly proud of the end result:**
Other festivities thus far have included a day trip back to Long Island to celebrate the East Islip St. Patrick's Day parade where my mom was honored as the Ladies Aide to the Grand Marshall. Very exciting times in EI. So, that proved an excellent little visit filled with family & friends.
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| Mom leading the parade! |
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| And it wouldn't be St. Paddy's with out an Irish Carbomb or two...or 12... |
Just before the aforementioned trip to Long Island I had the opportunity to participate in one of those "this kinda stuff only happens at Tom's crazy volunteer job" events. Namely, a trip to see a 76ers game in Philly with the kids from the Bellevue Center at UNC. One of the programs we run at UNC is an evening recreation center for kids in the local area (actually, there are several of them across the city, but the Bellevue is the largest and attracts the most kids). The Bellevue Center is open at night, sometimes as late as 10pm, to give kids a safe alternative to hanging out on the streets. The center is also located just up the block from one of Scranton's public housing 'projects' and so it serves a particularly disenfranchised population in the area. Side note: some find it surprising that a city like Scranton has the same types of socioeconomic disparities as larger, more populated cities like New York, Baltimore, D.C., but I promise you, it's not a strictly urban phenomena. The Bellevue a substantially different environment than my after school programs over in West Side where the focus is more on programming for tutoring, theater, leadership, etc., rather, Bellevue runs programs that are focused around athletic activities for the kids. Although it's not my primary position I have had the chance to get involved with some of the programs at Bellevue and one of the events they ran was a 3-on-3 basketball tournament to mirror the upcoming NCAA tournament. The winning team was rewarded with tickets to see an actual NBA game down in Philly and - lucky me - I was selected as staff chaperon for the trip. So, down to Philadelphia I went with one other staff member from the Bellevue and the three champions of UNC's first annual March Madness tournament! The game was a thrill and the 76ers won in a massive comeback!
Not only was it great to be down in Philly again, but I got to visit the Wells Fargo Center, the home field for some of Villanova's biggest games! It would be an understatement to say that I am excited for my alma mater to be in the tournament again this year (barring some indiscriminate miscarriage of justice at this weekend's selection Sunday) after our less-than-exciting hiatus last year. Let's hope they can find a little bit of Irish luck to help them out on their journey this month!
LET'S GO NOVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's about all for now, some housemates & friends will be attending the local high school performance of Annie tonight (several of my kids from program are in it). And then we're having dinner tomorrow evening with some students from The University of Scranton who have been accepted into JVC for next year! So that promises to keep us busy this weekend.
Sláinte,
Tom
P.S. Thank you all for your prayers, Aunt Chrissy's surgery went well & she's been released from the hospital...more Luck for the Irish!!!
